Tesla (TSLA) cars may soon be able to go farther on a single charge.
The electric car company is hinting at battery life upgrades to the Model S sedan. Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted that the car will receive an update to "end range anxiety," and announced that details will be released during a Thursday press conference. The standard Model S can travel about 200 miles per charge.
Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task doesn’t think this will be a game changer for Tesla.
“It might solve range anxiety for people who own the car, but I don't know if it's going to solve investor anxiety.”
Shares of Tesla are down 21% over the past year, based on Friday’s close. Task notes that Tesla is trying to turn this trend around.
“They need something to turn the tide here, and I don't know if this is what's going to do it," he says. "The Model S already has much longer range than other electric vehicles, and if they can really expand that... that might get somebody who is right on the fence about buying a Tesla to say, 'Okay I'm going to go ahead and do it.' But that remains very much to be seen.”
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The price-tag for the standard Model S starts in the $70,000 range. This could limit wide-spread adoption of the car, adds Task.
“That's the real issue for Tesla is that they have yet to make a mass-market vehicle and maybe they've already saturated the high-end market of people who... don't really care so much about the price tag,” he says. “So for Tesla to really be a long-term automaker that has longevity and life beyond the immediate 'Wow, this is a really cool vehicle and they're doing some great technology,' they're going to need to bring that price point down. There's no doubt about it.”
Tesla faces competition from a wide-range of electric automakers, including BMW, Mercedes and Audi, notes Task.
“Every automaker in the world is working on either electric or hybrid or some kind of alternate fuel vehicle and so there's plenty of competition out there for Tesla,” he says. “What has gotten them to this point is that their technology has always been one step ahead of the competition. The question is whether they can ramp that up to become a full-scale production automaker and bring the price point down to where it's more affordable.”